How to make an effective quiz funnel + examples

Sales funnels are powerful tools that take visitors from slightly curious to paying customers. A quiz funnel takes the best aspects of a sales funnel and turns it into something better.

In this guide, you’ll learn what a quiz funnel is, how it’s different from a traditional sales funnel, the elements you need to make an effective one, and real-life examples.

What is a quiz funnel and why is it unique?

A sales funnel is the series of steps that you take prospects through while moving them closer to making a purchase decision. It involves a number of different marketing activities like emails, blog posts, paid ads, social media posts, landing pages, etc. that work together to bring about your desired goal.

A quiz funnel is similar to a standard sales funnel. It’s designed to move prospects towards a purchase decision but there are differences.

• The quiz makes it possible to segment subscribers at the point of lead capture based on what they’ve told you about themselves
• You can immediately present hyper-focused offers to your subscribers

While many funnels have a segmentation and personalization aspect, there’s an assumption built-in. If someone lands on your content piece about black dresses, you’ll assume they’re interested in black dresses.

In the realm of digital marketing, the concept of funnels is fundamental. These structured pathways guide users through a series of steps, ultimately leading them to a specific goal or conversion.

While many funnels have a segmentation and personalization aspect, there’s an assumption built-in. If someone lands on your content piece about black dresses, you’ll assume they’re interested in black dresses. 

However, it's crucial to acknowledge that assumptions in funnels can sometimes fall short of capturing the full spectrum of user intent and behavior.

This is a logical conclusion but it may not be correct.

A quiz, on the other hand, allows you to ask specific questions and know with 100% certainty that you’re segmenting prospects properly (this alone can increase sales by up to 20%). That way, you can present a hyper-relevant offer for the market segments you know exist in your audience.

Let’s look at how to put together an effective quiz funnel.

The elements of a high-converting quiz funnel

The quiz funnel has a number of key pieces that ensure everything works perfectly together. Here’s a high-level overview.

Keep an eye on dwell time and bounce rate. A piece of content may have a lot of traffic but poor engagement. Of course, I can’t tell you what good metrics are because your situation is unique but compare it to other pieces of content on your website and choose the best ones for you.

Make sure the topic is related to the products and services you’ll be offering. If not, you may have a high lead conversion rate but a poor sales conversion rate.  

Popular topics on third party websites

For this strategy, you can use platforms like Reddit, Quora, forums, and even Amazon reviews to understand what people are interested in.

In this example, I’ll use Quora.

Navigate to Quora.com and create an account if you don’t already have one. In the search bar at the top of the screen, type in phrases related to your niche and click search. On the screen that loads, click on topics to the left.

When the list of topics appears, click on the one with the most followers or the one that’s the most relevant to you.

At the top, there are two options, answer and read.

Make sure read is selected. Go through the top answers and open the question to see how many people are following it.

An outcome that shows them the next steps

Your outcomes inform the questions you create for quiz takers. Each question gives you specific information to lead quiz takers to a specific result/outcome.

Your outcome has a number of goals.

1.     Diagnose the problem

Think of yourself as a doctor. You have expertise around the problem the quiz taker is experiencing. All of the questions up until this point were there to help you better understand the problem and deliver an accurate diagnosis.

You want to take their symptoms (question answers), add your own expertise, and diagnose the problem. This is the first part of the outcome and it’s what you use to establish trust and credibility.

For example, if someone says they want to work out, tend to get motivated, but can’t follow through over time, you can diagnose that as quick burnout blues (I just made that up). The point is that you’re taking the information they’ve given you, echoing it back at them, and then attaching a name to it.

When they hear their diagnosis they’ll naturally want to learn more. If a doctor tells you that you have Mono, you’ll want to know exactly what that means. That’s what you’re doing with your outcome.

Diagnose the problem with a proprietary name then let them know what it means and how it can affect them going forward.

2.     Present potential solutions to the problem

This is the most exciting part. Once a prospect is well educated about the problem they have, they’ll want to know how they can solve it. At the same time, they want options.

Think about a doctor’s consultation. They’ll tell you about the problem and give you multiple options.

For example, if you have a damaged tendon, they may give you options like:

• Surgery
• Physical therapy
• Weeks of rest

Each option has its pros and cons. The doctor will also give you their professional opinion about the best treatment regimen for you and tell you why they feel that way.

That’s what you want to do with your outcome. Instead of telling them that the solution to quick burnout blues is your awesome course, you give them multiple options as well as the benefits/drawbacks of each.

This helps you build even more trust because you’re taking an impartial stance. After you’ve gone through the options, present your own recommendation.

3.     Give them your preferred choice

When you present your recommendation, it’s important to lay out a logical and convincing argument for your prospect to understand why this is the best route for them.

To achieve this effect, you’ll take the answers they chose (this is why the outcomes are created first – so you can create the right type of questions and answers) and incorporate them into your argument.

Instead of a generic sales pitch, your suggestion becomes hyper-personalized to their specific situation. Of course, your suggestion is an inexpensive product that you sell. Don’t get me wrong; it’s truly beneficial because it solves the problem they have and helps them achieve their goal. You just happen to be the one selling it.

In the image above, this is the offer presented to people who’ve taken one of our quizzes and found out they have an “unscalable business” It’s a short physical book that will show them how to create a scalable business.

Let’s look more closely at the offer which you’ll suggest in your outcome.

An offer attached to your outcome

This offer is also known as a tripwire offer. It’s an inexpensive product that’s at the bottom of the value ladder in your business. Usually, a tripwire offer is less than $50 but it depends heavily on the price points of your products.

For example, A Louis Vuitton bag costs $3,000. If they were to create a tripwire offer, their customers wouldn’t buy it at $50. They’d think something was wrong. For them, $500+ would still qualify as a tripwire offer.

The offer you present here, as I explained a few moments ago, is directly tied to the diagnosis and is presented as the best possible solution right now.

Note that the goal of this offer isn’t to turn a profit. The goal is to break even on whatever resources you spent to generate the traffic and leads. It’s also designed to reduce the friction required to become a paying customer.

Once someone is a customer, it’s much easier to get them to buy from you again.

Your real profit comes from the backend. Backend products vary but it’s typically high end consulting, high-ticket products, continuity programs (like memberships or software), etc.

There are a few things to consider when creating or choosing the product you’d like to offer.

• It solves their problem right now (or quickly) based on the diagnosis you gave.
• The product is inexpensive when compared to your other products
• It’s closely related to your core products and services

If you get all three of these aspects right, you’ll be able to get many of the quiz takers to convert on the spot. That’s the beauty of the quiz funnel – it produces instant revenue.

Upsell or downsell after the initial offer

When someone buys the tripwire offer, the next step is to present an upsell, down sell, or order bump to maximize the value of the transaction. This is where you start to turn a profit. It can be used to run your business or scale up the acquisition channels that are producing revenue for you.

An upsell is a product that’s closely related to the initial product purchased but is more expensive. If you offered an eBook as the initial product, you may consider offering a small course for a few hundred dollars. An upsell can’t be too expensive or people will just ignore it.

A downsell is also a product that’s closely related to the initial product they’ve purchased but it’s only presented if they don’t purchase the upsell. For example, if the upsell is a small course for $197, the downsell could be the quick start version for $47.

An order bump is something presented at the point of checkout that adds value to the initial offer. It bumps the value of the order. An example would be worksheets or an action plan related to the book they just bought.

Here’s how the process would play out.

Someone orders the initial tripwire offer. On the checkout page, an order bump is presented and they can take advantage of it by clicking a button. After purchasing, they’re shown an upsell. If they don’t buy the upsell, they’re shown a downsell. After that, they’re taken to the thank you page and their purchase is fulfilled.

At the same time, they’re entered into an email marketing sequence.

Segmented email follow up

This is the bread and butter of the quiz funnel. Most people won’t buy the tripwire offer you present but you should have lead conversion rates of 25%+. That means a lot of people signing up for your mailing list.

Instead of sending them a generic email sequence, tailor it based on the outcome they got and whether or not they’ve purchased your initial offer.

For example, if you have four outcomes for your quiz then there are four email follow up sequences. Those change slightly based on whether or not the person purchased your tripwire offer.

The nuances of creating an email marketing sequence are beyond the scope of this post but here are a few things to keep in mind:

• It should instill the necessary buying beliefs
• It should educate prospects
• There should be dedicated sales emails
• The core product pitch should only last a few days before moving on to something else.

Conclusion

A quiz funnel can be an effective way to grow your brand but it requires thought and planning. There are multiple moving pieces which have been laid out in this article.

Start with a quiz topic, build the outcomes, create relevant questions, and create or choose products that’ll serve as your initial offer, upsells, and downsells. Test the different quizzes with paid traffic before finally settling on the one that works best for your audience.

Let me know what you think in the comments and don’t forget to share.